The wokesters have found a new way to torpedo Green Book. Much better than “magic negro” or “white savior.” This afternoon The Cut‘s Anna Silman posted a hit piece about Green Book director Peter Farrelly having comically weenie-wagged in front of two prominent persons 20 years ago.
How Brett Kavanaugh was Farrelly’s behavior? Sometime in the mid to late ’90s Farrelly jokingly whipped out his johnson in front of then-20th Century Fox honcho Tom Rothman. (Weird but who cares?) He also flashed Cameron Diaz in the same impish spirit, before she was cast in There’s Something About Mary. (That’s it…off with Farrelly’s head!)
Silman and her hit-squad allies found descriptions of said behavior in two 1998 articles, one in Newsweek piece and another in an Observer article by Nicola Barker (no link — available only on Nexis). Diaz hasn’t complained about Farrelly’s flashing, although Rothman was quoted by Newsweek as saying “it wasn’t a pretty sight…in fact, I’m still recovering.”
HE to Cameron Diaz reps: Your client to hereby requested to come forward and not only confirm Farrelly’s behavior but provide explicit damning details. Not by me but, you know, the em>Green Book haters. They’re looking to knock it out of contention once and for all, but they need your client to deliver the killshot quotes.
Silman: In these stories, it’s notable how Farrelly’s behavior is treated like a cute running prank instead of egregious sexual misconduct, illustrating just how much things have changed in the past two decades — indeed, much of it in the past year.”
Farrelly to Silman: “True. I was an idiot. I did this decades ago and I thought I was being funny and the truth is I’m embarrassed and it makes me cringe now. I’m deeply sorry.”
It really comes down to Diaz. If she waves or laughs it off, the story might peter out. But if she’s in any way traumatized or even irked by the memory, Green Book could be in trouble.
By the way: This afternoon “they” (Indiewire‘s Zack Sharf, among others) went after Nick Vallelonga with a deleted tweet about the Green Book co-screenwriter supporting Donald Trump’s tweet about mobs of New Jersey Muslims cheering the 9/11 disaster.
By The way: A friend sent me a Kate Erbland Indiewire piece about Green Book detractors and defenders. He interpreted the piece as more or less positive. Except it isn’t. The fact that Indiewire is basically Woke Central tells you the article had to contain a dig or two. Especially with Erbland, one of the woke-iest Indiewire staffers, on the keyboard.
Erbland quote: “The awards campaign for any biographical film benefits from the support of those who knew the subject, but for the increasingly embattled Green Book, it’s essential.”
Farrelly’s film was embattled when it first came out and the wokesters all jumped on it, but now that it’s won three Golden Globe awards and has acquired a positive good-vibe aura, Erbland is calling it “increasingly embattled.”
This is a code term aimed at Academy and guild members: It basically means “you don’t want to vote for anything controversial.”
